WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, Oceana released a new report that finds fishermen in the United
States could be throwing away approximately $1 billion annually in
wasted catch, or bycatch, which is the discarding of non-target fish and
marine wildlife at sea, often already dead or dying. These findings,
which examine the economic value of discarded fish lost to the U.S.
fishing industry, are a follow-up to Oceana’s previous report Wasted
Catch: Unresolved Bycatch Problems in U.S. Fisheries.

“Bycatch is bad business. We’re not just throwing away fish, we’re
throwing away money,” said Dominique Cano-Stocco, campaign director at
Oceana. “While improvements have been made in U.S. fishery management,
the bottom line is that $1 billion in wasted catch is too much. The U.S.
must continue to move forward on reducing the amount of bycatch in our
nation’s fisheries.”

In Oceana’s new report, titled Wasted
Cash: The Price of Waste in the U.S. Fishing Industry, the most
recently available bycatch data from the National Marine Fisheries
Service was multiplied by the price per pound of discarded fish species,
and then compiled for a nationwide estimate of the lost economic value.
This conservative analysis provides a snapshot of the real value wasted
from inefficient fishing operations. According to government estimates,
U.S. fishermen discard approximately 20 percent of their catch every
year, amounting to 2 billion pounds of fish.

“The staggering amount of fish thrown away every year in the U.S.
represents a real loss, both to fishermen and the future resilience of
ocean ecosystems,” said Amanda Keledjian, report author and marine
scientist at Oceana. “Fisheries need to take the same steps other
successful businesses do to cut waste and increase efficiency. In most
cases, fishermen have the means and knowledge to make these changes, but
lack the economic incentives to do so.”

Key Facts:

South Atlantic and Gulf:

$100 million worth of fish discarded in the southeast shrimp trawl
fishery

$4 million worth of target fish discarded in the Atlantic pelagic
longline fishery, including tuna, sharks and swordfish

$3 million worth of red grouper and $250,000 worth of red snapper
discarded in the snapper-grouper longline fishery

New England and Mid-Atlantic:

$25 million worth of discarded fish in bottom trawl fisheries,
equivalent to 20% of the total value of these fisheries

$8.5 million worth of discarded summer and yellowtail flounder in
trawl and dredge fisheries, equivalent to 30% of the earnings for
these species

$3 million worth of severely depleted Atlantic cod discarded

Alaska and Pacific:

$53 million worth of Pacific halibut discarded in Alaskan
fisheries in one year, equivalent to 25% of the annual landed
value in the region

$17 million worth of fish discarded by flatfish trawlers in the
Gulf of Alaska

$0.5 million worth of bluefin tuna discarded in the California
drift gillnet fishery in one year

In the report, Oceana recommends a three-step approach for fisheries
managers to increase efficiency and cut down on lost value due to
bycatch:

1) COUNT -- Accounting for Bycatch: Everything that is caught in a
fishery, including bycatch, should be counted. Without accurate
estimates of how much fishermen are catching and discarding, fisheries
managers have no way to account for the negative consequences of
bycatch, including the failure of juvenile fish to mature, off-the-books
fishing on depleted species and lost future revenue.

3) CONTROL -- Economic Incentives Change Behavior: Fisheries managers
should provide incentives to minimize bycatch and avoid economic losses
like early fisheries closures that result from exceeding bycatch limits.
These could include incentives to use real-time reporting, cleaner gear,
time-area management, bycatch reduction devices or other emerging
economic tools.

To access all of Oceana’s materials, including the full report, a
brochure with a summary of the findings, photos, expert bios and more,
please visit www.oceana.org/wastedcash.

Oceana is the largest international advocacy group working solely to
protect the world’s oceans. Oceana wins policy victories for the oceans
using science-based campaigns. Since 2001, we have protected over 1.2
million square miles of ocean and innumerable sea turtles, sharks,
dolphins and other sea creatures. More than 600,000 supporters have
already joined Oceana. Global in scope, Oceana has offices in North,
South and Central America and Europe. To learn more, please visit www.oceana.org.